Der Teufel or Paholainen : Differences in meaning between monolingual and multilingual translations of The Devil in the Belfry and Berenice
Heinonen, Sirius (2025)
2025
Kielten kandidaattiohjelma - Bachelor's Programme in Languages
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2025-01-08
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202501031067
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202501031067
Tiivistelmä
The aim of this thesis is to analyze how translating multilingual literature into either a monolingual or a multilingual translation affects the meanings that multilingualism brings to the story. In addition, this thesis examines whether newer multilingual translations are closer to the original on the level of meaning than older monolingual translations.
The data for this thesis consists of two short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, The Devil in the Belfry and Berenice, as well as two translations of each, one monolingual and one multilingual. The multilingual parts of the stories are analyzed to find the meanings that they bring to the texts. After the analysis the translations are compared to the original texts to examine possible differences on the level of meaning, as well as to each other to see if one of the translations is closer to the source text than the other. Previous research on multilingual literature and its translation is used to support the analysis. The thesis also looks at previous research on retranslation and considers if the Retranslation Hypothesis is applicable to the translations examined.
The analysis shows that multilingualism is used in the short stories in different ways and for different purposes. In The Devil in the Belfry multilingualism appears mostly in the form of code-switching and accented English and it gives the characters their cultural identity. In Berenice on the other hand multilingualism takes the form of intertextuality and serves mostly as background and explanation of the narrator’s monomania. The thesis discovered that how much the underlying meanings of the story change in the translation process, especially in the case of monolingual translations, seems to depend on the purpose and significance of multilingualism. The results also support previous findings on the insufficiency of the Retranslation Hypothesis because while the newer multilingual translation of The Devil in the Belfry is closer to the source text, there do not seem to be any significant differences in meanings between the translations of Berenice.
The data for this thesis consists of two short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, The Devil in the Belfry and Berenice, as well as two translations of each, one monolingual and one multilingual. The multilingual parts of the stories are analyzed to find the meanings that they bring to the texts. After the analysis the translations are compared to the original texts to examine possible differences on the level of meaning, as well as to each other to see if one of the translations is closer to the source text than the other. Previous research on multilingual literature and its translation is used to support the analysis. The thesis also looks at previous research on retranslation and considers if the Retranslation Hypothesis is applicable to the translations examined.
The analysis shows that multilingualism is used in the short stories in different ways and for different purposes. In The Devil in the Belfry multilingualism appears mostly in the form of code-switching and accented English and it gives the characters their cultural identity. In Berenice on the other hand multilingualism takes the form of intertextuality and serves mostly as background and explanation of the narrator’s monomania. The thesis discovered that how much the underlying meanings of the story change in the translation process, especially in the case of monolingual translations, seems to depend on the purpose and significance of multilingualism. The results also support previous findings on the insufficiency of the Retranslation Hypothesis because while the newer multilingual translation of The Devil in the Belfry is closer to the source text, there do not seem to be any significant differences in meanings between the translations of Berenice.
Kokoelmat
- Kandidaatintutkielmat [8997]